Why Does God Discipline Some Christians with Death?
00:00:00.000 | Here's a question I see often in the inbox, but we're just getting to it now.
00:00:08.460 | Why does God threaten to end the lives of some Christians?
00:00:13.920 | Today's email comes from a baffled listener named Mike.
00:00:16.680 | "Hello Pastor John.
00:00:17.800 | Every time our church celebrates the Lord's Supper, the appropriate warnings are sounded.
00:00:21.400 | It's not for non-Christians.
00:00:23.360 | It's not for Christians harboring resentment.
00:00:25.940 | But I remain rather confused about 1 Corinthians 11 verses 27 to 32, a text that appears to
00:00:31.220 | be delivered to true Christians.
00:00:33.600 | So their abrupt discipline will prevent their eventual condemnation.
00:00:38.360 | Why would God physically kill one of his children and end their earthly lives early?
00:00:43.680 | Couldn't he sustain them to the end just as easily?
00:00:46.420 | Can you explain the merciful judgment on believers Paul is talking about here?"
00:00:51.860 | My guess is that this question will seem strange to some of our listeners.
00:00:57.780 | Why would God physically kill one of his children?
00:01:04.540 | That's what he's asking.
00:01:05.840 | Or even if we soften it and avoid the word "kill," why would God take one of his children
00:01:12.100 | home as a means of discipline to prevent condemnation when he might have prevented it another way?
00:01:21.060 | That's the gist of the question.
00:01:23.660 | But it is a very good question, and it's demanded by 1 Corinthians 11, 27 to 32.
00:01:31.020 | So let me read that so everybody is with us in this question.
00:01:37.020 | We're not making this up.
00:01:39.120 | It says, "Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup," meaning the Lord's Supper,
00:01:45.540 | "of the Lord in an unworthy manner," which I take to mean a cavalier, minimizing, unbelieving,
00:01:54.340 | careless way, "will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord."
00:02:00.220 | In other words, if you treat lightly and disrespectfully and irreverently the precious emblems of the
00:02:09.180 | Lord's crucifixion, you're showing that you don't cherish and tremble at the horror and
00:02:15.100 | preciousness of the real crucifixion.
00:02:17.020 | I think that's the logic.
00:02:19.740 | Verse 28, "Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
00:02:28.760 | For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body," that is, without seriously distinguishing
00:02:35.540 | this bread from a breakfast biscuit, "eats and drinks judgment on himself."
00:02:43.260 | That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.
00:02:51.260 | So three levels of severity, it sounds like—weakness, sickness, death.
00:02:58.180 | But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.
00:03:03.740 | But when we are judged by the Lord—that is, with weakness or sickness or death—when
00:03:10.380 | we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with
00:03:19.220 | the world.
00:03:20.460 | So weakness and sickness and even death are the Lord's discipline to prevent His people
00:03:28.420 | from being condemned to hell.
00:03:32.300 | So there's the reality that raises the question.
00:03:35.860 | The question is not whether God has the right to take life.
00:03:38.860 | Mike is granting that.
00:03:41.060 | The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, "Blessed be the name of the Lord," Job said, and
00:03:45.660 | Mike is believing that.
00:03:49.540 | The question is, if God is taking the life of one of His children so that they will not
00:03:56.060 | be condemned to everlasting destruction, couldn't He have spared them another way, namely by
00:04:02.740 | causing them to eat the Lord's Supper more respectfully?
00:04:07.300 | And so why wouldn't He do that?
00:04:10.420 | That's the question.
00:04:11.580 | And the answer to the question is, God could indeed prevent the desecration of the Lord's
00:04:18.620 | Supper by restraining the desecration.
00:04:20.500 | Yes, He could.
00:04:21.940 | For example, in Genesis 26, when Abimelech the king was about to defile Abraham's wife
00:04:29.580 | Sarah, God kept him from doing it.
00:04:32.220 | It says, "It was I who kept you from sinning against Me."
00:04:36.780 | So He can do it for a pagan king.
00:04:38.700 | He can do it for His children.
00:04:39.900 | He can keep them from sinning at the Lord's table.
00:04:43.380 | And in the New Testament, God works in His people to keep them pursuing holiness, at
00:04:50.540 | least to the measure that they have.
00:04:52.300 | Hebrews 13.21, 2 Thessalonians 1.11, 1 Corinthians 15.10, Philippians 2.12, 1 Peter 1.5, God
00:05:00.980 | works in His people to restrain them from sin and lead them in holiness.
00:05:05.140 | So God could have prevented the desecration of the Lord's Supper and thus prevent the
00:05:11.820 | discipline that He brings on those who desecrate it.
00:05:16.380 | So why doesn't He?
00:05:19.740 | Now, before I try to answer that, let's be sure that we see how sweeping this question
00:05:28.180 | is.
00:05:29.180 | This question really is a specific instance of asking the larger question, "Why is there
00:05:38.140 | any divine discipline in the Christian life?"
00:05:42.260 | Not just why does God use the final discipline of taking a life, but why would there be any
00:05:49.580 | physical or mental or relational difficulties brought into the Christian life as a way of
00:05:56.020 | preventing their sin and advancing their holiness?
00:05:58.900 | Why not just prevent the sin and create the holiness by faith and by a clear sight of
00:06:04.860 | Jesus and by the ordinary means of word and prayer?
00:06:08.580 | Why should there be any form of painful discipline in the life of God's children?
00:06:15.660 | That's the larger question implied in the specific one.
00:06:19.420 | So let's be sure that we know God does discipline His children with more or less painful things
00:06:28.800 | in their life, and we know that because of Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12, 4 to 10.
00:06:35.580 | It says, "In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of
00:06:40.740 | shedding your blood.
00:06:42.940 | My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by
00:06:51.100 | Him.
00:06:52.100 | For the Lord disciplines the one He loves and chastises every son—that's important—chastises
00:06:58.460 | every son whom He receives.
00:07:01.380 | It is for discipline that you have to endure.
00:07:04.540 | God is treating you as sons.
00:07:06.820 | For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
00:07:11.080 | He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness."
00:07:17.700 | First Corinthians 11:30 is one description of that, what we just read from Hebrews 12.
00:07:24.780 | It happens at different levels.
00:07:27.160 | For some, it's weakness.
00:07:29.360 | For some, it's illness.
00:07:31.080 | For some, it's death.
00:07:33.560 | And don't forget the words, "The Lord disciplines the one He loves."
00:07:38.280 | He loves.
00:07:39.860 | He loves.
00:07:41.540 | If He makes us weak, He's loving us.
00:07:44.240 | If He makes us ill, He's loving us.
00:07:46.940 | If He takes our life, He's loving us.
00:07:52.040 | Now why does God do it this way?
00:07:55.700 | Why not just perfect us all overnight?
00:07:59.280 | That really is what the question boils down to.
00:08:02.400 | Or why doesn't He bring us to greatest holiness with no painful discipline?
00:08:09.920 | Just read your Bible and pray and be holy and no painful discipline at all.
00:08:15.600 | And my answer goes something like this.
00:08:19.400 | God knows the best way to bring about in His children, one, a love for His absolute holiness.
00:08:29.000 | Two, a hatred of our bent to sinning.
00:08:33.960 | Three, the gratitude for His amazing grace and patience in our lives.
00:08:40.480 | Four, a passion to trust Him in every circumstance of life.
00:08:45.680 | He knows the best way to do this.
00:08:49.280 | So let's be careful that we don't decide what's best and tell Him how to do it.
00:08:57.200 | We watch Him and learn what's best.
00:09:01.520 | He knows best how to produce these great wonders in His church, and we shouldn't second-guess
00:09:09.320 | Him.
00:09:10.320 | Indeed, we should not.
00:09:11.560 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:09:12.560 | Well, for everything you need to know about this podcast, you can find it at DesiringGod.org/AskJohn.
00:09:18.560 | Well, the book of Job is profound.
00:09:23.560 | It's worth a lifetime of study and reflection.
00:09:26.920 | But was Job himself a real historical character like John Bunyan?
00:09:31.600 | Or is Job a mythical legend like Paul Bunyan?
00:09:34.920 | And would it really matter in the end which he was, a biographical fact or a morality
00:09:40.400 | tale?
00:09:41.400 | That question is up next time on Friday.
00:09:44.040 | It's a good one.
00:09:45.040 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.
00:09:46.040 | We'll see you then.
00:09:46.160 | [END]
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